Coping with a Spreadsheet Database

A common way to save persistent, important data is a spreadsheet. It provides a handy, potentially normalized store that's readily accessible with minimal tooling. It has a UI usable by people with a spectrum of skills.

Sadly.

There's a core conflict:

  • The advantages of spreadsheets-as-database are numerous.
  • The disadvantage is …
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Should I use x.__len__() or len(x)?

Date Tags #python
In the context of providing type hints, someone had a function like this.
def f(x: Sized) -> Whatever: ...

And, since sized objects have a __len__() method it seemed sensible to use x.__len__(). It was a good question about the use of special methods.
My advice is to avoid using …
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